Maximum Security Unit

2501 State Farm Rd., Tucker,
Arkansas 72168

Maximum Security Unit Visiting Information:

Inmate Notification of Visiting Procedures
Written information regarding procedures governing visitation will be made available to inmates upon their arrival at the institution. At a minimum, the information will include, but not be limited to the following:

Institution address/phone number, directions to the institution.
Days and hours of visitation.
Approved dress code and identification requirements for visitors.
Items authorized in the visiting room.
Special rules for children.
Special visits
Each inmate is responsible for notifying his/her family and friends if they are approved or denied for visiting privileges or if visiting privileges have been suspended or terminated.

Visitor Applications
Each visitor must complete a visitation application and return to the address listed on the form. The inmate is responsible for providing visitors with applications. Applications are then processed, reviewed and either approved or denied by the Warden. This process can take from seven days to six weeks. A criminal history check is done on all prospective visitors.
Minor children, under age 18, may not be allowed to visit unless accompanied by an approved adult visitor, or upon proof of emancipation.
Visitors age 12 and older are required to provide photo identification for entry into a correctional facility
Visitation Hours and Number of Allowable Visitors
Visitation is either Saturday or Sunday. The inmate’s custody classification can determine when or if visitation is allowed. After you have been approved to visit the inmate, check with the individual unit for specific visiting hours. No visitation is allowed on the fifth Saturday or Sunday of the month or on holidays.

Four visitors are allowed during any one visit, including children. However, the spouse of an inmate and all children, regardless of the number, may visit when no other adults are present.

Special Visits
If the warden or center supervisor approves, special visits may be allowed any two days during the week and during regular visiting hours for approved visitors who live more than 300 miles from the unit. The visitor must request the visit 24 hours in advance during regular business hours. No special visits are allowed on holidays.

Entrance into Correctional Institutions
Any person or vehicle entering a correctional unit can be searched for contraband. Visitors in wheelchairs and those wearing wigs or religious headgear are also subject to search. If a wig or religious headgear is being worn, the visitor will be searched outside the presence of other visitors by an employee of the same gender. Entrance will be denied if a visitor is not willing to submit to a search. Visitors must also pass through a metal detector. Units randomly drug test visitors by use of an Ion Scanner. A positive scan can lead to a search of the visitor and his or her vehicle. Visitors are not allowed to bring cameras, pagers, cellular phones, pocketknives, or food into a facility. Visitors are allowed to bring a small coin purse, billfold, identification, baby bottles, baby diapers, diaper wipes, car keys and jewelry (being worn). The warden/center supervisor or designee may set limits on the amount of money that a visitor will be allowed to bring in. Visitors age 12 and older must provide photo identification.

Visitor Dress Code
Visitors cannot wear sleeveless tops, halter-tops, tank tops, hats, shorts, mini-skirts/dresses; see-through clothing or camouflage attire to any correctional facility. Brief cut or otherwise provocative clothing will not be permitted. Children age 10 or younger may be allowed to wear shorts during visitation. The department can deny visitation to any person who is dressed inappropriately

Inmate Telephone
Inmates are provided with coinless telephones during set hours of use. Inmates can only make collect calls to pre-approved numbers. Inmates cannot have cellular phones or calling cards. Inmates can lose their telephone privileges for disciplinary reasons. Each unit has its own telephone policy, so please check with the particular unit for specific hours of use. Boot Camp inmates may write and receive letters only. They have access to telephones only in emergency situations or to notify family or friends prior to graduation from the Boot Camp.

Tobacco Policy
Inmates are not allowed to have any kind of tobacco. This policy became effective January 17, 2000, and prohibits inmates from possessing “any smoking or smokeless tobacco product.” If an inmate does have tobacco, it is considered contraband and the inmate will be disciplined. Visitors and employees must leave all tobacco products in their vehicle. Bringing tobacco products into a facility will result in loss of visitation privileges.

I have been following the SQ News since I found it while sufring. I appreciate this new website, as I no longer have to search for the paper within the CDCR website.My comment is that I am dissappointed at the current lack of ssubstance in the paper. I remember when powerful stories were written, using verifiable research now, I read stories about yoga that doesn’t tell me anything.November 11 was Veteran’s Day, why wasn’t there a story about our incarcerated vets? And, don’t call that article across from the yoga an article.Ms. Tupelo (above comment) hit the issue right on: how about more stories/ articles/ opinions discussing inmates’ views, ideas & solutions to California’s problems? As the lady said, the inmates have the knowledge It’s logical: if drug addicts want to get clean, they go to sober addicts foranswers. They don’t go to someone who has never had the same problems andexperiences. So, if CDCR wants to fix their decrepit, broken system and reduce recidivism and parolees committing crimes, ask the men & women who have made it out of a system programmed to keep them in.Hopefully the SQ News will return tohaving more depth and substance in the reporting. Perhaps reducing the sports section to make room for more opinions.Otherwise good work.I absolutely support you guys, just strive to get more substance nd your readership will expand, increasing the power of your voices.Sincerely,Dannie M.Reno, NV

Dear Sirs,I enclose a rievew of a BBC TV programme which was screened on 7th May 2012. This is how the television portrayed your prison. I have since looked at all your good works on your website, none of which was broadcast in that particular programme.Kind regards,William Mills TV rievew-Louis Theroux’s visit to California’s San Quentin PrisonBBC 2 Monday 7th May 2012 10pm.San Quentin prison, on the northern shore of San Francisco Bay, holding some of California toughest criminals, resembled a children’s kindergarten at times in this hour long documentary.Theroux had gained partial access to this large prison holding more than 5,000 prisoners. However he was excluded from the ‘Condemned Unit’ or death row incarcerating some 600 inmates waiting to die by lethal injection, the largest such facility in the Western Hemisphere.The prisoners interviewed included a transsexual called Debra who due for release, recounted how he had been in and out of prison for the last twenty years, a few months at a time for petty offences. Prison sounded like long term home.This theme was taken up by another inmate who had been sentenced to an excess of 500 years by the US justice system. He had every thing he wanted in prison he claimed. A roof over his head and three meals a day.Theroux visited the canteen to show himself eating with the prisoners. He made no observation of the fact that many were grossly over weight. Prisons in the past have trimmed the numbers by starving the inmates to death. Are the American authorities turning this on the head by practicing ‘death by chocolate’ instead? [Indeed UK Moors Murderer Myra Hindley was allowed to chain smoke 60 cigarettes a day in her small cell. Did this hasten her end?]The programme also interviewed a number of guards, but never explored the idea that San Quentin gave all of their lives a purpose. The notion of being unable’ to cope on the outside’ was given as justification for the failings of a correctional system that doesn’t correct.The programme failed to mention that in the 1980’s the USA, under President Reagan, had a prison population of 200,000. A decision was also taken at that time not to have a nationwide healthcare system providing day care centres for the mentally ill. By 2010 there were 2.2 million behind bars with a further 5 million on parole or probation. The total is one in 31 adults of their resident population.The USA’s prison population has increased tenfold in less than a life time by sweeping up all those who were simply unable to fit in elsewhere in society.Theroux did finally touch on the subject when on the final day of their visit they interviewed a prisoner in his own wire mesh cage in the exercise yard. The prisoner was positive that because he was so bad all the prison security was necessary. Theroux asked if he had ever considered he might just be mentally ill?The man cut quite a pathetic figure in his tiny animal cage deemed as too dangerous to ever be released. While on the other side of the bars the film crew enjoyed the freedom to stop off for a coffee or whatever, on their way to the airport.